"This book discusses a difficult and seriously defective part of the common law. Considering its practical importance, the subject of joint promises has received surprisingly little attention. Noting is commoner than for a contractual promise to be made by more than one party; yet the rules relating to joint promises are accorded little space in the English textbooks on contract, even where they are not entirely ignored. Partial expositions are to be found in works on partnership, bankruptcy, suretyship, negotiable instruments, executors, and procedure, but there is no modern monograph devoted to the subject as a whole. It is hoped that the present work will fill this gap." -- from the author's Preface, p. 3.

There are various situations in which multiple states or international organizations are bound to an international obligation in the context of cooperative activities and the pursuit of common goals. This practical phenomenon of sharing international obligations raises questions regarding the performance of obligations (who is bound to do what) and international responsibility in case of a breach (who can be held responsible for what). This book puts forward a concept of shared obligations that captures this practical phenomenon and enables scholars and practitioners to tackle these questions. In doing so, it engages in positive law-based categorization and systematization, building on existing categorizations of obligations and putting forward new typologies of shared obligations. Ultimately, it is contended that the sharing of obligations has relevant legal implications: it can influence the content and performance of obligations as well as the responsibility relations that arise in case of a breach.

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.

This new essay collection by distinguished philosopher Margaret Gilbert provides a richly textured argument for the importance of joint commitment in our personal and public lives. Topics covered by this diverse range of essays range from marital love to patriotism, from promissory obligation to the unity of the European Union.

Of this edition Marvin speaks highly of Evans: "His notes are comprehensive and learned, and deserve a careful perusal in connexion with the text, and he is entitled to considerable praise for having furnished Pothier on Obligations to the profession in so good and accurate an English garb." Marvin, Legal Bibliography 578. Holdsworth agrees: "He helped to make English lawyers acquainted with Pothier's work, and, by so doing, did considerable service to the development of the English law of contract..." Holdsworth, A History of English Law XIII:467. Evans [1767-1821] was a scholarly English lawyer. To Pothier's work he added an Appendix on several topics of English law, organized as a treatise on the law of evidence. Pothier's treatise on civil law was "... soon recognized as a major contribution to legal science, translated by Evans and frequently cited in British Courts." Walker, Oxford Companion to Law 973. Reprint of the uncommon Evans translation, the English second edition which followed the American edition of 1802 (translated by F.X. Martin), which is also available as a facsimile reprint published by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

Margaret Gilbert offers an incisive new approach to a classic problem of political philosophy: when and why should I do what the laws of my country tell me to do? Beginning with carefully argued accounts of social groups in general and political societies in particular, the author argues that in central, standard senses of the relevant terms membership in a political society in and of itself obligates one to support that society's political institutions. The obligations in questionare not moral requirements derived from general moral principles, as is often supposed, but a matter of one's participation in a special kind of commitment: joint commitment. An agreement is sufficient but not necessary to generate such a commitment. Gilbert uses the phrase 'plural subject' to referto all of those who are jointly committed in some way. She therefore labels the theory offered in this book the plural subject theory of political obligation.The author concentrates on the exposition of this theory, carefully explaining how and in what sense joint commitments obligate. She also explores a classic theory of political obligation --- actual contract theory --- according to which one is obligated to conform to the laws of one's country because one agreed to do so. She offers a new interpretation of this theory in light of a theory of plural subject theory of agreements. She argues that actual contract theory has more merit than has beenthought, though the more general plural subject theory is to be preferred. She compares and contrasts plural subject theory with identification theory, relationship theory, and the theory of fair play. She brings it to bear on some classic situations of crisis, and, in the concluding chapter,suggests a number of avenues for related empirical and moral inquiry.Clearly and compellingly written, A Theory of Political Obligation will be essential reading for political philosophers and theorists.